NEWBURGH, N.Y. – A sacrifice fly by junior left fielder
Matt Cahill (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) in the bottom of the eighth brought in the winning run as the Mount Saint Mary College baseball team (10-10) took down New Jersey City University (11-13), 5-4, in non-conference action at the MSMC Baseball Field Wednesday afternoon.
Cahill had another big game for the Knights, going 3-for-3 with two doubles, a run and the game-winning RBI. He improves his team-high batting average to .400, and now has 24 runs scored and eight doubles on the season.
The Knights fell into an early hole when Gothic Knight right fielder Joe Coutinho hit a long double that one-hopped the fence in left field, bringing second baseman Nick Ruscingno around to score and put NJCU up, 1-0.
The Knights strung together a rally in the fourth to take their first lead of the game. Freshman first baseman
Blake Keenan (Fishkill, N.Y.) opened the inning with a walk, and then senior designated hitter
Andrew Conn (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) singled through the left side. Freshman center fielder
Johnny Vaccaro (Roslyn Heights, N.Y.) then took a pitch to the shoulder, loading the bases without an out for the Knights.
With one away, senior shortstop
Rocco Pepe (Commack, N.Y.) hit a slow ground ball down the first-base line. The pitcher fielded the ball, but his only play was to first for the second out of the inning, allowing Keenan to score and tie the game. Conn later scored on a passed ball during the next at bat, and Vaccaro moved over to third. Sophomore third baseman
Louis Rivera (Linden, N.J.) walked in that at bat. A wild pitch with Cahill at the plate allowed Vaccaro to score and Rivera to move up to second, giving the Knights a 3-1 lead. Cahill eventually walked, and a new pitcher was brought in, who managed to get senior right fielder
Ryan Atkins (Wallkill, N.Y.) to fly out and end the inning.
It did not take long for the Gothic Knights to get back in the game, as the Knights had a very sloppy inning cost them midway through the game. Left fielder Chris Stevenson reached on an error by the shortstop to open the inning, and then shortstop Zach Buchholz walked to put junior relief pitcher
Logan Kurtz (Gansevoort, N.Y.) in some trouble. Center fielder Dmitri Rueger then grounded out, but advanced the runners to second and third.
The big blow in the inning came off the bat of catcher Andrew Niech, who lined out to left, allowing Stevenson to score from third. On the play, Keenan cut the ball off and threw to third to try to get Buchholz tagging, but threw the ball wide of Rivera, allowing Buchholz to score and tie the game. The Knights made one more error in the inning that luckily did not cost them, reaching a total of three errors in the top of the fifth.
New Jersey City sent its third pitcher of the game, Jhon Garcia, to the rubber to take over in the bottom of the seventh. Cahill immediately opened the inning with a blooper to right that dropped in between the fielders for a double. On the play, the right fielder made a lazy throw to the infield, which was misplayed by the second baseman. A heads-up Cahill saw the play and hustled to take third base. Later in the inning, junior catcher
Kristopher Fragomeni (Beacon, N.Y.) came through with a single to right field, plating Cahill to give the Knights a 4-3 lead.
Coutinho led off the eighth for NJCU with a single to left, which was bobbled and dropped by Cahill, allowing Coutinho to advance to second on the play. Stevenson sacrificed Coutinho over to third in the next at bat. Coutinho scored on a ground ball to short by Buchholz. On the play, sophomore shortstop
Jimmy Papineau (Pleasant Valley, N.Y.) fielded cleanly and fired home to try to get Coutinho. Freshman catcher
Adrian Peralta (New York, N.Y.) ran him back to third, but Coutinho managed to run into Rivera in the baseline, awarding him home plate to tie the game.
Vaccaro opened the home half of the eighth by reaching on a throwing error by the third baseman. He then moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt by freshman second baseman
Albert Estwick Jr. (East Elmhurst, N.Y.). Third baseman Michael Martucci then took over on the mound for the Gothic Knights, and walked two straight batters to load the bases. Cahill then hit his sacrifice fly to left, putting the Knights on top by the final score of 5-4.
Sophomore reliever
C.J. Szczesny (Syracuse, N.Y.) picked up the win and improve to 1-1 after allowing one unearned run in two innings of relief. Junior closer
Sean Betterly (East Meadow, N.Y.) allowed one hit and struck out one batter in a clean ninth inning to earn his fourth save of the season and his third in five days. Garcia was tagged with the loss for NJCU after being responsible for the winning run in the eighth.
Cahill was the only Knights with multiple hits in Wednesday's win. Vaccaro went 1-for-3 with a double and two runs. Rivera went 0-for-1, but reached base three times with three walks.
Coutinho went 2-for-4 with a run, an RBI and a double to pace the Gothic Knights. Rueger hit 2-for-5 out of the leadoff spot, while Ruscingno batted 1-for-5 with a run scored.
After a two-game break from Skyline play, the Knights get back to their conference schedule on Saturday, April 18, when they host St. Joseph's College (L.I.) for a doubleheader at the MSMC Baseball Field. First pitch of game one is slated for 12 p.m.
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